A contact form [everyone groans] can someone teach me?

[weaselandalf]

Hi,
I need to create a contact form with the user's details, is there a tutorial anywhere that would tell me how to do this?

In my form I need single line text inputs, text boxes and checkboxes. I was tempted to just ask someone to code one for me, but my better side won out, as I'd rather learn how to do it myself....

Failing that, can someone point me to a good script and explain how it all works?

Thanks for reading this, I'd be even happier if you were to leave a comment! 🙂

edit: OK, have just realised, I have a working form with a few fields and stuff, should I upload that to here and just get help modifying that rather than building a whole new one??

[Houdini]

That would be nice and you would learn in the process, after you learn how to handle various input types then you can do just what it is you want.

[weaselandalf]

Okay, my working script is as follows, if I'm honest, I'm not entirely sure how it all works, I have a basic idea, but what each line does is beyond me.....

So, I want to add text boxes, one line text inputs and also checkboxes to return a true/false value.

Thanks a million for offering to help!!!!!!

<? 

if (isset($_POST['Send'])) { 

$to = 'email@domain'; 
ini_set("sendmail_from", " [email]email2@domain[/email] "); 
$subject = 'A new client'; 
$body= $_POST['message']; 
$from = $_POST['email']; 

$headers = "From: $from\r\n Reply-to: $from\r\n "; 

mail($to, $subject, $body, $from); 
echo "Thanks for your email"; 

} 
?>


<form action="<? $PHP_SELF; ?>" method="post"> 
  <p><span class="style2">Contact Me</span><br>
    <br>
    <span class="style1">Enter your message here:
    </span><br>
    <textarea name="message"><?= isset($_POST['Send']) ? $_POST['message'] : ''; ?>
    </textarea>
  </p>
  <p><span class="style1">Your email address: </span><br>    

    <input type="text" name="email" value="<? echo $_POST[email]; ?>">
  </p>
  <p>    <input type="submit" name="Send" value="Contact me"> 
  </p>
</form> 

<?  ?>

[Blulagoon]

Try this for a complete overview of forms.

http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/interact/forms.html

Blu

[weaselandalf]

I've had a look, and um, honestly I understand a little more but I'm nho further forward. How can I add a few more text inputs and also four checkboxes?? thanks for the help.

[Houdini]

This line appears to have BB Code it should be changed to probably your email address without the [ email ] and [ /email ]

ni_set("sendmail_from", " [email]email2@domain[/email] ");

It should porbably be the same as you $to variable. Then in the mail() function $from should be changed to $ headers like this.

mail($to, $subject, $body, $headers);

Also the opening and closing PHP tags should be eliminated from the bottom of the script 'cause nothing is in there.

Basically the form is submitting back to itself by using

<form action="<? $PHP_SELF; ?>"

It might not work using short tags depending on the php.ini might need to use <?php instead of <?.
This line takes the value entered in the textarea with the name of "message" and echos the value of "message" using the $POST['message'] It is using the ternary operator where if $POST['send'] is set then the message will be echoed otherwise a blank space is entered into the textarea That is done with the : ''. If a user checks just ride a bus then the value of $POST['vehicle']

<textarea name="message"><?= isset($_POST['Send']) ? $_POST['message'] : ''; ?>
    </textarea> 

Keep in mind that checkboxes can all be checked or even none of them be checked and they go into an array so take this simple example of just three options

<input type='checkbox' name='vehicle[]' value='car'>Drive a car<br>
<input type='checkbox' name='vehicle[]' value='truck'>Drive a truck<br>
<input type='checkbox' name='vehicle[]' value='bus'>Ride a bus<br>

If a user checks just ride a bus then the value of $_POST['vehicle'][0] would be bus so you have to handle these type inputs differently. A radio button on the other hand has the same name but different values and only one radio button may be checked so you would check for the values that are possible of the radio buttons you used.

[weaselandalf]

The reason for the weird coding at the beginning is to do with my web server's over-enthusiastic security. It's the only variation that seems to work.
Now in the code itself, where do I put the following?:

<input type='checkbox' name='vehicle[]' value='car'>Drive a car<br>
<input type='checkbox' name='vehicle[]' value='truck'>Drive a truck<br>
<input type='checkbox' name='vehicle[]' value='bus'>Ride a bus<br>

And unless I'm mistaken (what's new, eh?) the above code doesn't tell the data to be included in the body of the message, does it? I'm so sorry that I find this so hard, I feel really guilty just coming back each time and saying I don't understand. Could you possibly just shove those bits into my code and highlight each bit of code that'd needed adding or changing as a result? (Please feel completeky free to say "No, get lost you lazy, unintelligent...etc.")

But I really want to learn how to write PHP, not just become adept at getting other people to do it for me!

[khendar]

The code you pasted just prints out the checkboxes inside the form. So they should go wherever your contact form is.

What you will need to do is get the array of check boxes from POST ($vehicle = $_POST['vehicle']; ), convert them to a string somehow (eg $string = implode(", ", $vehicle); ) and then add them to your $body ($body .= $string; )

[weaselandalf]

Okay, I'm beginning to feel I maybe understand some of this (or I might just be hungry...) but that actually helps. Right, so I know where to add the checkboxes themselves thanks to you khendar.

Now, where do I put the the command to convert the data from the array into a string, and where do I add the command to add them to the body, this is the bit that really confuses me...
And Oh My God! Thank you for helping me!

[Houdini]

First do this in the PHP part of the script,

$vehicle = $_POST['vehicle']; 
$string = implode(", ", $vehicle);

then down where your mail variables are just do this

$subject = 'A new client';
$body= $_POST['message'];
$body .=$string;// This will add the imploded string into the $body variable
$from = $_POST['email'];

[weaselandalf]

Oh I see, so the

$body .=

adds extra information to the body of the message? So I could keep on adding them under neath to include other variables?

[Houdini]

Yes the .= is concatenating (or adding to the variable, so if you decided you needed yet another to be added you could just use the $body .= to do it. Or you could use a little planning and set everything all at once. It link together or appends to the original variable. A good example of this would be the $headers variable used with the mail() function where you might want some or many variables for an email like Bcc: or CC: or Reply To: by concatenation.

[weaselandalf]

Thank you all for your help, I'm putting it together in Dreamweaver (I know - evil, but the coloured code really helps me and I don't have any other editing programs) now. I'll post the results later and hopefully someone will be able to help me fix it to get it to actually work??

[weaselandalf]

Right, okay, just to put it into context, it's for a landscape company I'm doing. I =think= I've done the checkboxes right (thanks to the excellent instructions and no thanks to my stupidity)...

<? 

if (isset($_POST['Send'])) { 

$service = $_POST['service']; 
$string = implode(", ", $service); 

$to = 'email@domain'; 
ini_set("sendmail_from", " [email]email2@domain[/email] "); 
$subject = 'A new client'; 
$body= $_POST['message']; 
$body .=$string;
$from = $_POST['email']; 

$headers = "From: $from\r\n Reply-to: $from\r\n "; 

mail($to, $subject, $body, $from); 
echo "Thanks for your email"; 

} 
?> 


<form action="<? $PHP_SELF; ?>" method="post">
  <p><span class="style2">Contact Me</span><br>
    <br>
    Your name:<br>
    <input name="Name" type="text" value="<?= isset($_POST['Send']) ? $_POST['message'] : ''; ?>">
    <br>
    <br>
    Address:<br>
    <input name="Address_line1" type="text" value="<?= isset($_POST['Send']) ? $_POST['message'] : ''; ?>">
    <br>
    <input name="Address_line2" type="text" value="<?= isset($_POST['Send']) ? $_POST['message'] : ''; ?>">
    <br>
    <br>
    Post code:<br>
    <input name="Post_code" type="text" value="<?= isset($_POST['Send']) ? $_POST['message'] : ''; ?>">
    <br>
    <br>
    Telephone number:<br>
    <input name="Telephone_number" type="text" value="<?= isset($_POST['Send']) ? $_POST['message'] : ''; ?>">
    <br>
    <br>
    Your email address: </span><br>
    <input type="text" name="email" value="<? echo $_POST[email]; ?>">
    <br>
    <br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Landscape_or_Garden_Design'>
    Landscape / Garden Design<br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Landscape_Contractor'>
    Landscape Contractor<br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Grounds_and_Estate_Maintenance'>
    Grounds and Estate Maintenance<br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Plain_Trees_and_Forestry'>
    Plain Trees and Forestry<br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Fencing'>
    Fencing<br>
    <br>
    Describe you landscape reqirements here: </span><br>
    <textarea name="message"><?= isset($_POST['Send']) ? $_POST['message'] : ''; ?> 
    </textarea>
  </p>
  <p>    <input type="submit" name="Send" value="Contact me"> 
  </p> 
</form> 

I'm not sure how to get the extra data in the Name, address line 1, addres line 2, Post code and telephone No. Into the body of the message, though I'm guessing it has to do with that nifty .= thing?

Many, many thanks for the help! 😃

[Blulagoon]

weaselandalf wrote:

Thank you all for your help, I'm putting it together in Dreamweaver (I know - evil, but the coloured code really helps me and I don't have any other editing programs) now. I'll post the results later and hopefully someone will be able to help me fix it to get it to actually work??

If you are after a PHP editing program which has syntax highlighting take a look at this:

PHP Designer from http://www.mpsoftware.dk/

Blu

[Houdini]

You need to make these changes or you will have trouble.

Your name:<br>
    <input name="Name" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Name'];?>">
    <br>
    <br>
    Address:<br>
    <input name="Address_line1" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Address_line1'];?>">
    <br>
    <input name="Address_line2" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Address_line2'];?>">
    <br>
    <br>
    Post code:<br>
    <input name="Post_code" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Post_code'];?>">
    <br>
    <br>
    Telephone number:<br>
    <input name="Telephone_number" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Telephone_number'];?>">
    <br>
    <br>
    Your email address: </span><br>
    <input type="text" name="email" value="<?= $_POST['email']; ?>">

Notice that when you name a field that to acces the value of that text field you access it by the $POST variable with it name enclosed in square brakets and single quotes like above. If nothing has been entered into the text box the value of lets say the Post_code text box then $POST['Post_code'] will be blank. However if the user inputs something into the textbox for name="Post_code" then that value $_POST['Post_code'] will equal whatever they put into the box.

The ternary operator helps in some cases but the way you had it in your code would have set all those boxes to whatever the $_POST['message'] was holding and I don;t think you would have wanted that. You should now see more of the logic of forms and their names and how to view the values of a given field name.

[weaselandalf]

Once again thanks for the help Houdini (once again to the rescue!) I'm tempted to put a poll up to see how much poeple hate me and my contact forms!

Okay, I'm getting a bad syntax error on line seventeen which is:

mail($to, $subject, $body, $from); 

Now, even I, being a complete newbie think that's okay, so what's the problem??

My code is:

<? 

if (isset($_POST['Send'])) { 

$service = $_POST['service']; 
$string = implode(", ", $service); 

$to = 'email@blah-blah; 
ini_set("sendmail_from", " [email]myemail@blah[/email] "); 
$subject = 'A new client'; 
$body= $_POST['message']; 
$body .=$string;
$from = $_POST['email']; 

$headers = "From: $from\r\n Reply-to: $from\r\n "; 

mail($to, $subject, $body, $from); 
echo "Thanks for your email"; 

} 
?> 


<form action="<? $PHP_SELF; ?>" method="post">
  <p><span class="style2">Contact Me</span><br>
    <br>

Your name:<br> 
    <input name="Name" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Name'];?>"> 
    <br> 
    <br> 
    Address:<br> 
    <input name="Address_line1" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Address_line1'];?>"> 
    <br> 
    <input name="Address_line2" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Address_line2'];?>"> 
    <br> 
    <br> 
    Post code:<br> 
    <input name="Post_code" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Post_code'];?>"> 
    <br> 
    <br> 
    Telephone number:<br> 
    <input name="Telephone_number" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Telephone_number'];?>"> 
    <br> 
    <br> 
    Your email address: </span><br> 
    <input type="text" name="email" value="<?= $_POST['email']; ?>">


<br>
    <br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Landscape_or_Garden_Design'>
    Landscape / Garden Design<br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Landscape_Contractor'>
    Landscape Contractor<br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Grounds_and_Estate_Maintenance'>
    Grounds and Estate Maintenance<br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Plain_Trees_and_Forestry'>
    Plain Trees and Forestry<br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Fencing'>
    Fencing<br>
    <br>
    Describe you landscape reqirements here: </span><br>
    <textarea name="message"><?= isset($_POST['Send']) ? $_POST['message'] : ''; ?> 
    </textarea>
  </p>
  <p>    <input type="submit" name="Send" value="Contact me"> 
  </p> 
</form> 

[Houdini]

$to = "email@blah-blah"; \\make changes to this
ini_set("sendmail_from", " myemail@blah");\\and this
$subject = "A new client";
$string= $_POST['message'];
$body = wordwrap($string,70 "<br \>\n");\\body can have no line more than 72 chars
$from = $_POST['email'];

$headers = 'From: $from'."\r\n".  

		   'Reply-to: $from'."\r\n".
		   'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();

[Blulagoon]

weaselandalf wrote:

Once again thanks for the help Houdini (once again to the rescue!) I'm tempted to put a poll up to see how much poeple hate me and my contact forms!

<? 

if (isset($_POST['Send'])) { 

$service = $_POST['service']; 
$string = implode(", ", $service); 

$to = 'email@blah-blah; 
ini_set("sendmail_from", " [email]myemail@blah[/email] "); 
$subject = 'A new client'; 
$body= $_POST['message']; 
$body .=$string;
$from = $_POST['email']; 

$headers = "From: $from\r\n Reply-to: $from\r\n "; 

mail($to, $subject, $body, $from); 
echo "Thanks for your email"; 

} 
?> 


<form action="<? $PHP_SELF; ?>" method="post">
  <p><span class="style2">Contact Me</span><br>
    <br>

Your name:<br> 
    <input name="Name" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Name'];?>"> 
    <br> 
    <br> 
    Address:<br> 
    <input name="Address_line1" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Address_line1'];?>"> 
    <br> 
    <input name="Address_line2" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Address_line2'];?>"> 
    <br> 
    <br> 
    Post code:<br> 
    <input name="Post_code" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Post_code'];?>"> 
    <br> 
    <br> 
    Telephone number:<br> 
    <input name="Telephone_number" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Telephone_number'];?>"> 
    <br> 
    <br> 
    Your email address: </span><br> 
    <input type="text" name="email" value="<?= $_POST['email']; ?>">


<br>
    <br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Landscape_or_Garden_Design'>
    Landscape / Garden Design<br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Landscape_Contractor'>
    Landscape Contractor<br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Grounds_and_Estate_Maintenance'>
    Grounds and Estate Maintenance<br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Plain_Trees_and_Forestry'>
    Plain Trees and Forestry<br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Fencing'>
    Fencing<br>
    <br>
    Describe you landscape reqirements here: </span><br>
    <textarea name="message"><?= isset($_POST['Send']) ? $_POST['message'] : ''; ?> 
    </textarea>
  </p>
  <p>    <input type="submit" name="Send" value="Contact me"> 
  </p> 
</form> 

You see all that code in red, that is a pretty good indication that you have not closed either a " quote or a ' quote, so the code is being interpreted as part of a string rather than what it really is.

Hope this helps you debugging stuff.

Blu

n.b. I'm sure most people don't hate you and your forms, we all have to learn.

[weaselandalf]

Okay, here's my latest version, I get an error message:

Parse error: parse error, unexpected ',' in e:\domains\b\bluewolfmedia.co.uk\user\htdocs\BawdenIII.php on line 12

Line 12 is:

$body = wordwrap($string,70 "<br \>\n");

The full code is:

<? 

if (isset($_POST['Send'])) { 

$service = $_POST['service']; 
$string = implode(", ", $service); 

$to = "[e-mail]"; 
ini_set("sendmail_from", ' [e-mail] ');
$subject = "A new client";
$string= $_POST['message'];
$body = wordwrap($string,70 "<br \>\n"); 
$from = $_POST['email'];

$headers = 'From: $from'."\r\n".  

		   'Reply-to: $from'."\r\n".
		   'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();


mail($to, $subject, $body, $from); 
echo "Thanks for your email"; 

} 
?> 


<form action="<? $PHP_SELF; ?>" method="post">
  <p><span class="style2">Contact Me</span><br>
    <br>

Your name:<br> 
    <input name="Name" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Name'];?>"> 
    <br> 
    <br> 
    Address:<br> 
    <input name="Address_line1" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Address_line1'];?>"> 
    <br> 
    <input name="Address_line2" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Address_line2'];?>"> 
    <br> 
    <br> 
    Post code:<br> 
    <input name="Post_code" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Post_code'];?>"> 
    <br> 
    <br> 
    Telephone number:<br> 
    <input name="Telephone_number" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['Telephone_number'];?>"> 
    <br> 
    <br> 
    Your email address: </span><br> 
    <input type="text" name="email" value="<?= $_POST['email']; ?>">


<br>
    <br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Landscape_or_Garden_Design'>
    Landscape / Garden Design<br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Landscape_Contractor'>
    Landscape Contractor<br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Grounds_and_Estate_Maintenance'>
    Grounds and Estate Maintenance<br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Plain_Trees_and_Forestry'>
    Plain Trees and Forestry<br>
    <input type='checkbox' name='service[]' value='Fencing'>
    Fencing<br>
    <br>
    Describe you landscape reqirements here: </span><br>
    <textarea name="message"><?= isset($_POST['Send']) ? $_POST['message'] : ''; ?> 
    </textarea>
  </p>
  <p>    <input type="submit" name="Send" value="Contact me"> 
  </p> 
</form>